Calif. high school to keep "Arabs" mascot despite uproar

In this Nov. 8, 2013 photo, the Coachella Valley High School Arab mascot, right, is walks the sideline with Coachella's genie mascot during the Victory Bell game at Indio High School, in Indio, Calif. Arab-Americans recently objected to the hook-nosed, snarling image used to represent Coachella Valley High School. The school has agreed to give the mascot a makeover, but not to drop the nickname. (AP Photo./The Desert Sun, Gerry Maceda) RIVERSIDE PRESS-ENTERPRISE OUT; NO SALES

LOS ANGELES -- On game days in
Thermal, where date farms and desert surroundings evoke the Middle East and
nearby communities have names like Mecca and Oasis, fans cheer a high school
team known as the Arabs.

A belly dancer jiggles on center
court. And a black-haired, mustached mascot wearing a head scarf rallies the
crowd.

At least that's the way it was done
for decades in the community 120 miles southeast of Los Angeles until
Arab-Americans recently objected to a hook-nosed, snarling image used to
represent Coachella Valley High
School.

The school has agreed to give the
mascot a makeover, but not to drop the nickname.

"We're still going to stick with
the Arab," said school board president Lowell Kemper after scores of
residents defended the tradition dating back generations. "It's just a
matter of whether we have a change in the caricature of the mascot."

Several videos posted on
YouTube show the so-called “genie” mascot at the school's football and basketballgames
performing with Arab-style “belly dancers.”

It's a twist on a decades-old issue
that has centered primarily on Native American mascots, logos and nicknames and
has transformed Indians to Cardinal at Stanford University and Chieftains to
Redhawks at Seattle University.

But the Arab debate spurs the same set
of questions: Is it possible to craft a mascot in the image of an ethnic group
that doesn't offend, or are schools better off scrapping the idea altogether?

The debate comes as the more familiar
Indian controversy has gained increased heat.

Last year, Oregon's Board of Education
decided to cut state funding to schools that fail to retire their Native
American mascots, while Wisconsin passed a law in 2010 that forces schools to
drop race-based mascots if a complaint is filed and the practice is found
discriminatory.

Earlier this year, President Barack
Obama said if he owned the National Football League's Washington Redskins he would consider altering the team's name, winning praise from Native American
groups that have led rallies and run ads pushing for the change.

"The things that we once did are
now viewed clearly as inappropriate and wrong, and that is the hardest thing
for so many who don't want to let go of yesterday - but it is the
reality," said E. Newton Jackson, a professor of sport management at
University of North Florida.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee complained last month that the Coachella
Valley mascot perpetuates negative stereotypes of Arabs and Arab-Americans
after one of its members raised questions about the image. The group sent a letter (PDF) to
school district officials about the mascot.

The move prompted a community-wide
debate and the school district formed a committee to redesign the mascot in a
more flattering light.

"When you get into trying to
characterize any ethnic group, I think you're crossing into a danger zone, and
you're bound to offend individuals," said Abed Ayoub, the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee's director of legal and policy affairs. "You
have this caricature that's supposed to represent Arabs but really does not.
The look is very orientalist, very demeaning - it's just not who we are."

The mascot was chosen in the early
20th century and "never intended to dishonor or ridicule anyone,"
district superintendent Darryl Adams wrote in a letter to the local Desert Sun
newspaper. Adams said the mascot was chosen in light of the region's production
of crops common in the Middle East but conceded that times change, and
"symbols and words embraced for decades may need to be considered for
change as well."

Coachella Valley isn't alone
in invoking images of Arabs or Muslims. In the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra,
the high school football team, known as the Moors, features a caricature of a
scowling, dark-skinned man with two swords on its Facebook page.

Yasmin Nouh, a spokeswoman for the
Council on American-Islamic Relations in greater Los Angeles, said her group
was going to speak with that school about making a change.

"Whether it is Arab, Norwegian,
Greek or Moors, we believe ethnic or religious-based mascots are OK as long as
they're portrayed in a respectful manner and don't reinforce negative
stereotypes," Nouh said.

A message was left at the Alhambra
Unified School District seeking comment.

Those who defend ethnic mascots often
claim they were chosen out of respect and honor. But teams in the early 20th
century usually wanted to adopt a belligerent image to instill fear in their
opponents, said Ellen J. Staurowsky, professor of sport management at Drexel
University in Philadelphia, who has researched mascots over the last two
decades.

In 2005, the NCAA cracked down on the
use of "hostile" and "abusive" American Indian mascots,
logos and nicknames, which prompted a flurry of changes in team images.
University of Illinois, for example, retired the image of Chief Illiniwek in
2007 but kept the name Fighting Illini, while the Southeastern Oklahoma State
Savages became the Savage Storm.

The College of William & Mary
remained The Tribe but stopped using Indian feathers on its logo.

Some universities were allowed to keep
their nicknames by getting permission from local tribes, such as Florida
State's Seminoles and Utah's Utes.

At Coachella
Valley, the Arab's image has evolved. He was once depicted riding on horseback
while carrying a spear, later changed to the surly caricature plastered on the
school gym's wall.

Rich Ramirez, president of the
school's alumni association, said graduates love the Arab. When some community
members questioned whether the mascot ought to be changed in the aftermath of
Sept. 11, 2001, the alumni stood by him, Ramirez said.

Barbara Munson, who chairs the
Wisconsin Indian Education Association's Indian Mascot and Logo Task Force,
said ethnic mascots breed discrimination, even when a school is trying to promote
cultural ties or its students' own heritage.

"What might be positive in your
community leads to the opposing team having homecoming and slogans like 'kill
the Indians,'" she said.